1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exercise and rehabilitation device. More particularly, the present invention relates to an exercise and rehabilitation device that is particularly well suited for providing a purposeful activity to a patient who is undergoing occupational therapy and rehabilitation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The goals of occupational therapy are to direct participation in selected tasks to restore, reenforce and enhance physical performance; facilitate learning of skills and functions essential for adaptation and productivity; diminish or correct pathology; and to promote and maintain health. It is known in the art that purposeful activity facilitates the achievement of these goals. In this regard, occupational therapy is based on the belief that purposeful activity, including its interpersonal and environmental components, may be used to prevent and mediate dysfunction, and to elicit maximum adaptation. Purposeful activity is normally viewed as any task or experience in which a patient actively participates, and which the patient achieves a goal beyond mere exercise. By selecting activities in which the patient has an interest, an occupational or physical therapist assumes that the patient will experience enough satisfaction to sustain performance. Each successful effort elicited by the therapist serves as an incentive for greater effort by the patient. In other words, purposeful activity provides an intrinsic motivation to act.
It is the belief of occupational therapists that a patient undergoing occupational therapy who is provided with interest-sustaining activities is likely to pursue those activities longer than would be expected with less interesting activities or exercises. In addition, it is known that the heart rate of a patient exercising at a predefined level of perceived exertion is significantly higher in the performance of a purposeful activity than in the performance of a nonpurposeful activity. The suggestion of this information is that individuals may not perceive fatigue as readily when the focus of their attention is on the end product, or purpose of the activity, rather than on the act itself. It has also been shown that patients performing a purposeful activity perform a significantly greater number of repetitions during a purposeful activity than during a nonpurposeful activity.
The above principles have been embodied in some prior-art exercise and rehabilitation devices. For example, one form of a purposeful activity exercise device is a rehabilitation woodworking machine requiring reciprocal pedaling to operate an integral drill press. Such a device includes a cycle ergometer; a platform serving as a drill press work table; and a pedal powered drill press mounted on top of the work table. The purposeful activity involved in such a woodworking rehabilitation device includes drilling a series of holes in wood blanks to construct a board game. The longer a patient is able to sustain pedaling the more time the patient has to construct board games. As should be understood, the purposeful activity of constructing the board game provides an intrinsic motivation to the patient, that is, a patient using the woodworking rehabilitation device will tend to exercise for a longer period of time than if the patient was using a nonpurposeful exercise device, such as, for example, an exercise bicycle.
There are, of course, numerous and varied prior-art exercise devices. One such device is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,015 ("the '015 patent"), which issued to Carlson et al. In this regard, the '015 patent describes a shoulder and arm exercise machine having a base; a resistance unit operatively connected to the base; an exercise arm extending from the resistance unit; and a handgrip assembly slidably mounted on the exercise arm. The exercise device disclosed in the '015 patent provides a means for carrying out a variety of shoulder and elbow exercise movements.
While many of the prior-art devices have operated with varying degrees of success, and have proven capable of providing exercise and rehabilitation for various muscle groups of the body, these devices have also proven to be less than ideal and sometimes ineffective for various reasons. For example, devices such as those described in the '015 patent to Carlson et al. do not necessarily provide a purposeful activity to patients and, therefore, do not provide the benefits of a purposeful activity exercise device, namely intrinsic motivation which leads to increased exercise time, cardiovascular conditioning, and muscular rehabilitation. Further, devices such as the woodworking rehabilitation device discussed above provide exercise and rehabilitation to limited portions of a patient's body. Moreover, the woodworking exercise machine described above is less than ideal because the device requires the use of relatively expensive, nonreusable material, in particular, wood blanks. It also requires the use of a possibly dangerous device, in particular, a drill press, and produces a byproduct, sawdust, which is created by the drill press, and which must be cleaned periodically from the device and removed from the exercise area.
Therefore, it has long been known that it would be desirable to have an exercise and rehabilitation device that incorporates the principles of purposeful activity while providing exercise and rehabilitation to various muscle groups of the body without the need of utilizing non-reusable, and relatively expensive material and without further the need of removing and cleaning byproducts produced by the purposeful exercise. It would also be desirable to have a purposeful exercise and rehabilitation device that provides exercise and rehabilitation for a patient's shoulders, arms, and elbows. It would also be desirable to have a purposeful exercise device that provides exercises for major muscle groups which facilitates in the ambulation of the patient with a walker or a cane; rising from or propelling a wheelchair; and for using railings or grab bars for mobility and safety. It would be even more desirable to have a purposeful exercise device which in addition to exercising the muscle groups involved in the above activities, i.e., shoulder and elbow flexors and extensors; and shoulder adductors and abductors; exercised proximal muscles in the back and abdomen. It would also be desirable to have a purposeful exercise device that is adjustable so that the patient may stand or sit while exercising according to the needs, tolerance, and stamina of the patient. It would also be desirable to have a purposeful exercise device where the activity performed by the patient is measurable so that the progress the patient makes can be readily recorded.